To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many incidents of pollution there were in each river in Northern Ireland in (a) 2002, (b) 2001 and (c) 2000, broken down by (i) industrial, (ii) farming and (iii) sewage incidents. [125327]
In the time available it has not been possible to provide the information to the level requested. However, I have asked the Chief Executive of the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) of the Department of the Environment to extract the information in respect of Northern Ireland's major rivers and tributaries and to write to the hon. Member.In the meantime the following table details the number of pollution incidents in each of the nine areas used by EHS for water pollution management purposes. The boundaries of these areas are shown in the attached map, which will be placed in the Library.
| Areas/year | Industry | Farming | Sewage |
| 2000 | |||
| 1 | 142 | 123 | 111 |
| 2 | 26 | 61 | 23 |
| 3 | 59 | 51 | 37 |
| 4 | 51 | 28 | 46 |
| 5 | 50 | 33 | 97 |
| 6 | 41 | 57 | 83 |
| 7 | 18 | 43 | 19 |
| 8 | 12 | 32 | 15 |
| 9 | 53 | 96 | 47 |
| Total | 452 | 524 | 478 |
| 2001 | |||
| 1 | 103 | 83 | 89 |
| 2 | 26 | 47 | 22 |
| 3 | 29 | 43 | 47 |
| 4 | 47 | 29 | 51 |
| 5 | 56 | 42 | 100 |
| 6 | 28 | 66 | 70 |
| 7 | 27 | 33 | 23 |
| 8 | 11 | 46 | 14 |
| 9 | 36 | 98 | 56 |
| Total | 363 | 484 | 472 |
| 2002 | |||
| 1 | 105 | 125 | 119 |
| 2 | 34 | 46 | 18 |
| 3 | 30 | 37 | 27 |
| 4 | 32 | 20 | 40 |
| 5 | 35 | 39 | 92 |
| 6 | 21 | 38 | 48 |
| 7 | 33 | 24 | 10 |
| 8 | 12 | 14 | 21 |
| 9 | 47 | 117 | 54 |
| Total | 349 | 460 | 429 |